


Eyes Half Closed

by dasakuryo



Category: DCU, Titans (2018), Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Episode Tag, F/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 21:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16542179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasakuryo/pseuds/dasakuryo
Summary: “I thought you wanted to keep Rachel safe,” Kory says. “Crashing the car because you fell asleep while driving would kind of defeat that purpose, wouldn't it.” //[Dick can be pretty stubborn at times, Kory isn't having it.]





	Eyes Half Closed

Kory should stop beating around the bush and just be done with it. She steals a glance of the backseat on the rearview mirror, she is awarded with the image of a snoring boy, mouth slightly open and ruffled green hair, and the curled up sleeping frame of Rachel, head turned to the side and almost buried into the leather seat.

A quick glance to her left when looking back at the road lets her catch sigh of Dick, who is currently rubbing his eye with his hand while grasping the steering wheel more tightly with the other. He blinks, repeatedly, and Kory has to bite her tongue to keep herself from blowing out a sigh. Her temper gets the better of her all the same, mere seconds afterwards she is rolling her eyes and turning to face him. The fact he's brought a hand to his mouth is not helping, he is not fooling her, she can see right through the incesant squeezing of his eyelids and the intermitent roll of his shoulders.

"I can drive, you know," she says. An observation, a blatant nagging one at that.

He turns, the rounding of his eyes so light she almost does not take notice of it, and blinks at her. The trace of a frown between his eyebrows gives him away, yet Kory won't back down,

“I am fine,” he assures, voice on the verge of dropping to a whisper, before she has a chance to add anything else.

Kory huffs.

“I am not going to kick you out as soon as you fall asleep, and steal your car,” she retors with an annoyed frown that hides an amused, slightly mocking, smile, “again.”

Something flashes across his face, breaking through the somber drowsiness clouding his gaze, but then he shakes his head, looking straight ahead.

“It's not that,” he bargains, the heel of his hand meeting the steering wheel with a short bump. There is a hint of amusement edging his mouth.

Kory twists her lips and settles for looking out of the window, blurred trees and snow dance before her eyes. She thinks of following the kids' example and settling back onto her seat, but the nagging instinct of self-preservation thriumps over her tiredness. She has no wish of ending up slammed into a tree. She busies her fingers rummagging through her purse, as if tidying up its contents would somehow straighten up her thoughts.

Dick clears his throat and mumbles something, at which Kory has to muster all her willpower not to burst out laughing.

“You should get some sleep.”

“I could say the same thing to you,” she bits back, raising an eyebrow.

There is a slight curling to his mouth when he locks his gaze with hers for a moment. His shoulders give a little shrug as he shifts his attention back to the road stretching before them.

“I am fine,” he repeats.

__Clearly, that's why you've been hiding your yawning for the past twenty minutes.__

“I thought you wanted to keep Rachel safe,” she says instead. “Crashing the car because you fell asleep while driving would kind of defeat that purpose, wouldn't it,” she pauses, licking her lips, internally gloating at his cocked eyebrow and wrinkled forehead, “ _Dick._ ”

He grunts and rolls his eyes, takes a deep breath, but when he exhales there is a wan upward twitch to the corner of his mouth that wasn't there moments ago. He sighs again, pressing his lips into a thin line. Kory's glee pops like a bubble at the sudden tensing of his shoulders. He inhales and the air comes out in a ragged puff. Her chest tightens.

His nodding is as surprising as his unexpected tension was seconds ago. It's then that Kory takes in the change outside the window, the trees and the snow are becoming less and less of a blur.

“You're right,” he whispers and she sees a shadow of the same expression he wore earlier, while driving to Caulder house. Right when she told him nobody manages alone.

The snow crunches when he pulls down to the lay-by slowly. He peeps to the backseat for a brief moment, where the two teens are still fast asleep and show no signs of waking up anytime soon. His door clicks open and a gush of cold wind sweeps inside. Kory hops down the car, wrapping her arms around herself and pressing her lips together when her magenta curls lap at her face and her thighs get goosebumps. When she walks past him, Dick flashes her what she guesses is the equivalent of an awkward smile of gratitude.

Kory rubs her hands together while Dick settles into the passanger seat. The seatbelts clink and before grasping the wheel, out of the corner of her eye she can already see Dick stealing a watchful gaze at her. She bites her lip and taps her finger on the wheel's edge.

“If anything—” Dick starts, before she says anything.

“I'll shake you awake, don't worry,” her tone halfway between assurance and annoyance.

His eyes flutter shut and he makes a soft sound in the back of his throat, his breathing getting slower as he seems to melt into the seat.

The quiet doesn't last long, however.

“If you feel like—” he mumbles again and Kory wonders whether it's physically possible to roll one's eyes into one's skull from annoyance. “You're tired— stop at the first motel or—” he pauses, almost stammering, “wake me up, I can take over—”

“Stop being a _dick_ about it and go to sleep already,” she huffs. “Don't tempt me to reconsider the throwing you out part.”

He must be about to fall asleep, Kory doubts he would have let the smile spread like that across his face otherwise.

“Thought people couldn't manage alone,” he echoes and Kory finds herself biting down a smile, in spite of her annoyance. Perhaps he is a nice guy, after all.

It's utterly childish, but she can't drop the jab.

“If you keep being a dick maybe I will change my mind about that.”

He lets out a breathy sound at that, which may or may have not been a chuckle, before mumbling agreement. It only takes a few minutes of him shifting restlessly for slumber to claim him completely, his breathing even and deep. Kory wonders how he manages not to startle awake with his face leaning onto the icy cold window.

He did not grab one of the travel pillows either, like the ones he handed over to the two kids earlier, Kory knows he is bound to end up with a stiff neck when he wakes up.

She is debating whether or not she should gently wake him or not, when an alien crackle nearly makes her jump on her seat. Rachel locks eyes with her in the rearview mirror, the envelope scranches again under the fumbling of her fingers. She's an eyebrow raised. Kory brings her attention back to the road when she notices it.

“So, you and Dick are getting along,” she observes, voice low.

It's Kory's turn to hold back a snort.

“Go back to sleep, girl.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> A little potential scenario after they hit the road at the end of Doom Patrol that popped up in my head. It's probably going to be rendered uncanon, but hey, seemed fitting as a follow-up of that earlier conversation in the car :) Hope you've enjoyed the read! Feedback is always appreciated n_n


End file.
